New To Blu: Angst

Called by
Gaspar Noe ‘the greatest serial killer film I have ever seen’, German director Gerald
Kargl’s Angstis the best serial
killer film you’ve neither heard of but now will finally have the chance to see
thanks to Cult Epics’ newly released blu-ray edition.

Telling the story of a nameless psychopath
(brilliantly and fearless portrayed by Erwin Leder) recently freed from prison
for murdering an elderly woman only to pick up where he left off immediately
upon release, Angst is both a cool
and distant God’s Eye view as well as an uncomfortably up, close and personal
look at a serial murderer. Less
interested in analyzing the killer’s motives than observing his behavior from a
fish eye lens, Angst is berserk and manically
stylized in its attempt to bring viewers inside the point of view of the
psychopath. Loosely based on the real
murder spree of Werner Kniesek with voice over narration quoting actual
confessions from serial killers like Peter Kürten, Angst plays out in real time as the film’s serial killer clumsily
attempts a first murder before hesitantly breaking and entering an elderly
family’s home. Far more realistic for
depicting a mass murderer sloppy at his craft of bloodletting, Angst is often compared to the equally
disturbing and uncompromising Henry:
Portrait of a Serial Killer.

What’s
immediately striking about Angst is
the impossible camerawork which Noe clearly studied closely before reshaping it
into his own visual language. Opening
with a crane shot slowly gliding down the tower of a prison towards the main
exit our antihero will depart, modern viewers will see Irreversible achieved without the aid of CGI enhancement or
invisible editing. When the film isn’t
showing off some of the most innovative crane shots ever created for a film,
our skewed sociopathic perspective through the killer’s eyes is furthered by
the use of the Snorricam, freezing the killer in the center of a shot as the
background moves around behind him. Then
there’s the floating camera following the killer as he runs through an open
forest in pursuit of his first potential victim, the camera swaying to and
from, moving in and out, from diagonals to strafing. The effect could only have been achieved by
the use of helium balloons or by a genuinely skilled cinematographer. Either way, it’s utterly jaw dropping to
see. Adding to the feeling of sickness is
the desaturated cool blue tint, giving the proceedings an icy detachment which
only amplifies our discomfort. It goes
without saying acting across the board, from the victims to our deeply
disturbed antihero, is excellent and fearlessly played. Some of the unspeakable acts the killer
commits onscreen must have taken real gall to perform, and the impact of the
performances is remarkably authentic and effective.

Despite
the unparalleled technical sophistication and brave performances on display, Angst remained almost completely unknown
in the United States. Noe’s rave of the
film prompted a full digital restoration of the film and subsequent blu-ray release
in France, but for the longest time American filmgoers were forced to turn to
dated VHS copies on eBay or degraded YouTube fan video as their only option. A shame that what could well be the most
stylish nonjudgmental serial killer film ever made has been treated like a
radioactive object not to be touched with a ten foot cattle prod here. Only now, decades later, are American viewers
finally being granted the chance to see Angst
in a lavish blu-ray restoration replete with extras and, of course, Noe’s
own endorsement included. With the
recent announcement of Noe’s next feature film project, Love, as well as our own pop cultural fascination with serial killers
in the media, Angst is ripe for
proper rediscovery stateside and provides a unique perspective on what it must
be like to see through a murderer’s eyes.